Am I the only one questioning why the puny stadium is empty? It was barely over half full during the China/Korean finals... and we're talking about the host country playing in a somewhat popular sport...
Badminton is not that popular in Korea. Please read my previous post. Even for korean stars, more Indonesians knew Lee Yongdae than Koreans. Popularity and achievements for each Asian Game Countries: If we count only the medals, China is definitely the super powerhouse in badminton. Korea is probably the 2nd. Many people may think that badminton is more popular in Korea than in Indonesia. But, China has so many categories to compete, in last Asian Games, China grabbed 199 gold medals, 5 of them are from badminton. Korea got 76 golds, 1 of them from badminton. Indonesia got 4 golds totally, and 1 of them from badminton. If I'm the sports minister to allocate the money for each sports, in China, badminton only counts 2.5% (5 out of 199) of the gold, therefore, I would allocate 2.5% money and resource to badminton. In Indonesia, since badminton counts 25.0% (1 out of 4) of the gold, 10 times bigger than China, I would allocate 25% money and resource to badminton at Indonesia. In this sense, badminton is 10 times more popular and glory in Indonesia than in China. By the same calculation, badminton is not that popular in Korea too, comparing badminton in Indonesia. Using this method, I classified countries into 3 groups: 1) high popular countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand. Badminton achievements at Asian Games count 5%-25% of their total sports achievements. These countries invested huge on badminton. Special attentions and resources are allocated to badminton as their preferential Olympic/Asian Games strategy. 2) average popular countries: averagely, badminton 7 golds has a 1.6% of the total 477 golds. So these countries: China, Korea, Japan, India, Taipei, Hong Kong,..., badminton takes 0.5-3 % of the total achievements. In these countries, badminton is treated equally to other sports as one part of their Olympic/Asian Games strategy. 3) low popular countries: other countries under-performed the average badminton medal percentage. Most countries in this group. Such as North Korea, Iran, Kazak, ... Badminton is ignored in these countries Olympic/Asian Games strategy.
I dont agree this argument especially for india. India will come to lower popular countries. And china will be among high populat countries. When china has 1000s of academies for badminton, india has only 2 or 3 academies . Out of that, only 2 will be world class academies. I am in one of the four largest cities . Still in my area, if I say badminton, they will ask " is it ball badminton you are talking about" something like that. Though you can find people coming to watch badminton tournaments held in the capital, NewDelhi(Thanks to saina) ,still you may find empty seats in these tournaments. But I never see an empty seat in any badminton tournaments held in china. GC once said something like "badminton knowledgeble crowd" referring to chinese people in one of the tournament.
Dunno why people are going off topic. It's not that hard to think of reasons: If it was the daytime and you have to either work or go to college, where would you have time to go to the stadium? Koreans have a hell bent culture on studying. I bet many are locked up in their study rooms. Possibly the stadium is inconvenient to access.
The crowd for the women's doubles final was embarrassing. It was like this earlier in the year at the badminton Asia championships though so we shouldn't be surprised. The Korea Open gets awful crowds as well, possibly one of the reasons it was stripped of its Premier SS status. It amazes me they manage to produce such brilliant players because there seems to be little interest in the sport over there.
It looks like this isn't limited only to badminton. Currently watching the 3000m Steeple Chase finals and the crowd is threadbare. It's quite sad. But perhaps it's just showing that the Asian Games as a whole, is important to the athletes (at least in badminton), but really is pointless for general audience.
Don't think it's true to other Asian nations . Above statement is too bold! Such statement MAY just be true for a workaholic society pursuing the career or material successes as everything in life. The Korean society may be developing into such path, along with Japan. Having said this, throw the Asian Games hosting to any other Asian nations, most likely the sport venues will be crowded with the local spectators (unless the sport discipline is quite unpopular, alien to the local people).
